NEW DELHI: With negotiations for a mega multi-nation free trade deal dragging on into its sixth year, the 16 countries comprising the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) bloc on Saturday vowed to intensify negotiations to conclude the trade pact this year.
The free trade deal has been stuck in the discussion stage for over half a decade now, and seeks to bring together the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) comprising Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam with their six free trade partners: Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea and New Zealand. However, the 16 nations have been unable to arrive at a mutually agreeable conclusion.
Saturday saw ministers from the bloc meet at Siem Reap in Cambodia for the seventh RCEP Inter-sessional Ministerial Meeting. The Indian Commerce Ministry, in its statement, said that the meeting reviewed the developments since the second RCEP Summit held at Singapore in November and resolved to conclude negotiations by the end of this year.
“The Ministers agreed to intensify engagement for the remaining of the year, including by convening more intersessional meetings,” a joint statement said. “The Ministers urged all participating countries to address specific sensitivities while working towards achieving commercially meaningful outcomes... (they) reiterated that it is the collective responsibility of all participating countries to ensure progress by overcoming negotiation challenges and finding resolution to the remaining issues through constructive engagement,” the statement added.
The 16-member RCEP bloc aims to cover among the issues related to goods, services, investments, economic and technical cooperation, competition and intellectual property rights.
Ahead of the meeting, Indian Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu had said that negotiators at the summit should be empowered with a “mandate to show flexibilities and accommodation on outstanding and pending issues”.